Playback with Black Market Dub

Supertramp - Breakfast In America | When Nerds Ruled Rock 'n Roll

Brandon picked it, Nate had never really listened to it, and our guest, Patrick Simon (musician, audio engineer, and Brandon's bandmate of a bazillion years) is a full-on Supertramp nerd. So we're putting Breakfast in America on Playback. This week: Supertramp – Breakfast in America (1979) — the album that turned a band of British transplants into the biggest pop act on Earth, sold 20 million copies, hit #1 in 12 countries, and somehow left the band so unrecognizable that any of them could walk around your city right now and you'd never know. The album where Roger Hodgson got so deep into the recording that he bought a Winnebago and parked it outside the Village Recorder so he could sleep next to the console. Brandon's pitch: this is the album where, in the same exact moment punk was telling the world you don't need to know what chord that is, a different breed of British musician was answering "but what if you did?" This is the Steely Dan / Rush / Alan Parsons / late-70s nerds-take-over-rock-and-roll moment. And it might be the greatest Wurlitzer album ever made. Chapters: 00:00:00 - Intro - Why did we pick Breakfast In America? 00:23:55 - Supertramp Went To Hogwarts 00:54:53: Production (But Mainly Wurlitzer Talk) 01:42:59 - Standout Songs + Favorite/Best 02:27:52 - Final Thoughts…. SIKE More Wurlitzer 02:41:23 - Ok FINAL Thoughts.. SIKE 9/11 02:45:33 - Final Final Thoughts, Mailbag, and Next Pick What we get into: - Yacht rock or dad rock? (We land on one of them — and it's not yacht rock) - The Davies / Hodgson duality — blue-collar blues guy vs. boarding-school castle kid - The Dutch millionaire who paid for Supertramp to exist, then walked away when it didn't work — and let them keep the money - The Wurlitzer vs. the Rhodes — what the difference actually is, why this is a Wurlitzer album, and why a Wurlitzer mixes itself - Boss CE-1 chorus pedal + DI + a tiny 64-key range that only really speaks in the middle = the entire sound of this record - The making-of: 1 month tracking, 7 months of overdubs, 1 month mixing — they only stopped mixing because the deadline came - A full week of just drum sounds - Why they had to leave the Village and mix it at Crystal Sound in Burbank - Favorite vs. Best vs. Standout — three different picks, three different reasons, and one heated argument about whether The Logical Song's vocal performance is grating - Casual Conversations as the negative standout - Why "dated" isn't a bad word, and why "timeless" isn't a compliment NEW SEGMENT (continued): We read your YouTube comments from the Bad episode. Leave us your Favorite vs. Best Supertramp song (or your opinion on Nate's reordered Breakfast in America track list) and we'll read the best ones on the next episode. Email us at blackmarketreggae@gmail.com [blackmarketreggae@gmail.com]. Support & follow: Patreon: https://patreon.com/blackmarketdub [https://patreon.com/blackmarketdub] Bandcamp: https://blackmarketdub.bandcamp.com [https://blackmarketdub.bandcamp.com] Escape Hatch Records: https://escapehatchrecords.com [https://escapehatchrecords.com] YouTube: https://youtube.com/blackmarketdub [https://youtube.com/blackmarketdub] Instagram: https://instagram.com/blackmarket_dub [https://instagram.com/blackmarket_dub]

Michael Jackson — Bad | Was This Michael's Last Good Album?

We did it — we put Michael Jackson on Playback. This week, Nate picked Bad (1987) — Michael Jackson's seventh album, his third and final collaboration with Quincy Jones, and the impossible follow-up to Thriller. The album where MJ wrote "100 MILLION" on his bathroom mirror, almost talked Prince into singing the first verse of the title track, and produced five #1 singles in a row — a record that stood for 25 years. If Thriller was Michael's Goodfellas, Bad is his Casino: weirder, darker, more interesting, and dated in a way that makes it endlessly fascinating. We get into: - Hot take from minute one: this album should be called "Good" - Why Bad is where everyone started taking a hard look at Michael — and where the "Wacko Jacko" era really begins - The production deep dive: the Synclavier ($200K in 1987), the Yamaha DX7, the Roland D-50, the Mitsubishi X850 digital tape machine, and how digital synths split pop musicianship into two camps forever - The A-Team vs. the B-Team — Quincy Jones, Bruce Swedien and Greg Phillinganes at Westlake versus the home-studio crew at Hayvenhurst, and what happened when Michael showed up to the official sessions with finished-sounding demos - Bruce Swedien stories: the drum platform, the 100 mixes of Billie Jean, the sped-up-tape clap trick - Did he do it? — we talk about the allegations - Brandon was working at the rehearsal studios for This Is It when Michael died — he was there, in the room - Favorite vs. Best: Man in the Mirror, The Way You Make Me Feel, Another Part of Me, Smooth Criminal, Liberian Girl - Was Michael Jackson the greatest entertainer who ever lived? Plus our next album pick. We want to hear from you. What's your Favorite vs. Best Michael Jackson album, song, or sound? Email us at blackmarketreggae@gmail.com [blackmarketreggae@gmail.com] or leave a comment on YouTube and we'll read the best ones on a future episode. CHAPTERS: 00:00:00 - Bad Overview 00:10:33 - Who Was Michael Jackson? 00:52:26 - Did He Do It? The Allegations 00:53:12 - The BAD Production 01:48:48 - Standout Songs & Favorite/Best 02:28:48 - Final Thoughts. Was MJ The GOAT? 02:38:43 - Mailbag (we read your comments) and Next Pick Follow & support: Patreon — patreon.com/blackmarketdub [http://patreon.com/blackmarketdub] (ad-free episodes) Bandcamp — blackmarketdub.bandcamp.com [http://blackmarketdub.bandcamp.com] Escape Hatch Records — escapehatchrecords.com [http://escapehatchrecords.com] Instagram — @blackmarket_dub YouTube — youtube.com/blackmarketdub [http://youtube.com/blackmarketdub] This episode is for fans of Michael Jackson, Quincy Jones, Bruce Swedien, Prince, Stevie Wonder, the King of Pop, Off the Wall, Thriller, Dangerous, Smooth Criminal, Man in the Mirror, the Synclavier and 80s digital production, music history deep dives, and album deep dives from a musician's perspective.

Gorillaz - Plastic Beach | The Cartoon Band With Something to Say (Or Do They?)

We're back from a short break and we came loaded — we relistened to the entire Gorillaz catalogue, caught them live at The Palladium in Los Angeles performing their new album The Mountain in full, and visited the House of Kong Exhibition before sitting down to record. On this episode we cover Plastic Beach: the production, our favorite tracks, our hot takes on what doesn't work, the full arc of Gorillaz across their career, and our honest reaction to The Mountain. And we sit with the question the whole episode keeps circling back to — are Gorillaz actually that deep, or is it all very stylish plastic artifice? We also pick our next album. Drop your Favorite vs. Best Gorillaz picks in the comments or email us at blackmarketreggae@gmail.com [blackmarketreggae@gmail.com]. CHAPTERS: 00:00:00 - Intro 00:27:56 - Production styles of GORILLAZ 00:56:55 - Standout Songs 01:41:50 - Favorite/Best & Hot Takes 02:11:43 - Final Thoughts & Next Album Pick

The Shaggs - Philosophy of the World | Art, Coercion, or Accidental Genius?

On this episode of Playback, we dig into Philosophy of the World by The Shaggs — and we don't let it off easy. We break down the legend of Austin Wiggin and the palm reading prophecy that supposedly destined his daughters for fame. We get into the music technically: what's going wrong, what's surprisingly going right, and what their relationship to rhythm and melody actually tells us. We put the record head-to-head with Trout Mask Replica by Captain Beefheart — two records that sound alien in similar ways but couldn't be more different in intent. And we ask the question nobody seems to want to sit with: is this album art, or is it coercion? CHAPTERS: 00:00:00 - Intro on Philosophy of the World 00:12:45 - The Legend of The Shaggs 00:43:23 - Production and Musicianship 01:10:19 - Standout Songs & Songwriting Breakdown 01:30:13 - Favorite Songs vs Best Songs, and Guitar Demo 01:44:00 - Hot Takes, Final Thoughts, and Next Album Pick #TheShaggs #OutsiderMusic #AlbumDeepDive #MusicPodcast #albumreview

The Prodigy – The Fat of the Land | The 5 Elements That Made It Revolutionary

In this episode we dive into The Prodigy’s The Fat of the Land and break down why it still sounds so explosive, distinct, and revolutionary decades later. We lay out what we call the “5 elements” that make these recordings hit so hard: * sampling * synths * menu diving / sound design decisions * performance * sequencing Instead of just treating this as a classic 90s big beat record, we get into the actual craft behind the chaos — how these tracks are built, why the production feels so aggressive and alive, and what makes The Prodigy stand apart from other electronic acts of the era. We also do a deep dive on our favorite tracks and close the episode by announcing our next album pick. Chapters: 00:00:00 - Intro and First Impressions 00:28:48 - Who is The Prodigy? 00:51:54 - The 5 Elements of a Prodigy Track 01:33:35 - Standout Songs and Production Deep Dive 01:53:35 - Favorite Songs vs Best Songs 02:07:15 - Final Thoughts and Next Album Pick 🔊 Support & follow: Patreon – https://patreon.com/blackmarketdub [https://patreon.com/blackmarketdub] Bandcamp – https://blackmarketdub.bandcamp.com [https://blackmarketdub.bandcamp.com] Escape Hatch Records – https://escapehatchrecords.com [https://escapehatchrecords.com] Instagram – https://instagram.com/blackmarket_dub [https://instagram.com/blackmarket_dub] YouTube – https://youtube.com/blackmarketdub [https://youtube.com/blackmarketdub]